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Minster slashes deficit as visitor revenues rise |
| Written by Jonathan Malory | |
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Yorkshire Post Today Julie Hemmings The fall in the deficit is due in part to extra revenue from visitors – income has risen from £1.384m in 2003-4 to £1.645m last year. As in earlier years, the Minster also has received substantial legacies. Originally set at £4.50 for adults, the basic admission charge rose in January of this year to £5. It costs extra to visit the tower, undercroft and crypt, but concessionary admission remained unchanged at £3. Entry is free for children under the age of 16 and York residents. Charges at York Minster are broadly in line with other historic English cathedrals – Canterbury charges £5 for adult admission, Ely £4.80 and Lincoln £4. Entry to Westminster Abbey costs £8. Dean of York Keith Jones said the latest budget figures were "a great achievement" but warned that the minster – the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe – had some way to go before it was "out of the woods" financially. "This is a great achievement, bearing in mind that two years ago we had an operational deficit of £600,000," said the dean. "We are not out of the woods yet, and we need to continue to look at ways to reduce the deficit further. The minster has always been funded by generous gifts and legacies. We have been helped particularly in this way recently, but we cannot expect to be so fortunate every year. "Cathedrals cost a great deal of money to maintain, and we receive no funding from the Government. We rely on the generosity of people throughout York and the whole country to help us maintain the life and work of the minster." This year the Dean and Chapter launched a £30m fund-raising appeal, backed by the Yorkshire Post, for the restoration of the minster's East Front and continued investment in its educational and musical life. Requests for voluntary donations, begun in May 2002, were abandoned after it was found that fewer than one in four visitors gave anything. In the first 12 months after the introduction of admission charges 475,000 people paid to enter the building, compared with an estimated 1.4m visitors the previous year. However, visitors are spending longer inside the cathedral and are more likely to attend a service or join a free tour. Before his retirement in 2003, former dean Raymond Furnell had been criticised for a "spend, spend, spend" culture at the cathedral as it fell deeper into debt. The financial year 2002-3 was the third successive year that the Minster had a deficit of £500,000 or more. Mr Furnell was succeeded by Keith Jones, who was installed as dean in June last year. |